E3 ‘10: Hands-On with Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
Posted by David "Snarkasaur" Stewart on June 23rd, 2010
Where EA has taken the darker path for the young wizard, WB sees Harry Potter and his friends returning to a simpler time when all they had to worry about was giant basilisks and shape-changing rats. Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 returns players to the first four books of the series, before Voldemort was terrorizing the English countryside and J.K. Rowling was still considered a children’s author. Oh, and they’re now made of Legos. I got to play a portion of Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 at last week’s E3, and I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time.
I admit to some hesitation about a Lego-based game set at Hogwart’s. I’d tried Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman and did not care for either. Maybe the aesthetic behind those two intellectual properties is too dark in nature. Maybe I just wasn’t mentally prepared for seeing some of pop culture’s largest heroes reduced to blocky caricatures of themselves. For whatever reason, the same doesn’t seem to apply to a Lego Harry Potter. If they’d tried it with the last three books in the series I might have a different opinion, but the first four, and the first two in particular, are light enough tales that seeing them block-ified doesn’t annoy me.
For the demo I played at E3, I was restricted to year 1. I started out right away with access to all three of the series’ perennial heroes, and could switch between Harry, Hermoine, and Ron at the flick of a button. Each had access to just a few spells for the demo, the levitation spell Wingardium Leviosa and a simple zap spell, but there’s so much going on in this game that I never really needed more. And surprisingly, at this point in the game story-wise they would only have access to simple spells like those anyway. At first, there are no discernible differences between using any of the three, aside from Ron’s pet rat Scabbers who is actually vital to solving some of the puzzles littered around Hogwart’s. When Ron brings Scabbers out, players actually control the rat and climb up through transparent pipework in order to flip a switch or knock down an item from above. Otherwise, using any of the three characters is merely a matter of preference (obviously I chose Hermoine). Later in the game, there will be larger differences such as Harry’s ability to turn invisible with his trademark cloak, or Sirius’ animagus morphing ability (incidentally it’s rumored that there are a boggling 167 playable characters we will have access to).
I’m not entirely sure where in the story I began. When I first picked up the controller, I was in what appeared to be the main hall of Hogwart’s. I had no coaching on plot points or what I was supposed to do next other than the glowing line that appears to lead you on the proper path. Each room Harry and company travel through generally has interactive objects or puzzles to solve, with the rewards either being access forward or simple Lego coins. I honestly have no idea what the coins are used for. As I said, I never made it too far in any of the other Lego games and their use wasn’t explained to me by the exhibitor guiding me along.
The puzzles I navigated in my play through were never very difficult, though I did run into a few tricky ones. The majority of them involved levitating certain objects and placing them in their proper position. A few others had me either interacting the the famous moving paintings around the castle or using Scabbers to scout out hidden objects or switches. Seeing and interacting with the various Lego-made areas of Hogwart’s is extremely charming, however, and of particular note was my first foray into the dining hall.
The first thing that happened upon entering the dining hall was an encounter with Draco Malfoy, the young scoundrel who perpetually torments the three friends during their time at Hogwart’s. The game has no dialogue, which seems an odd thing considering the literary background from which it hails. Nonetheless, Draco’s message was quite clear when he threw a gob of something at Hermoine’s face, an act that caused her to flee from the room in crying horror. This is the sequence that would begin my troll hunt portion of the demo, though I feel it necessary to note that in the books this is not what caused Hermoine to run to the girl’s bathroom crying and eventual encounter a giant troll that the book’s villain had unleashed upon the school.
Regardless, to the bathroom I went with Ron and Harry, and after bypassing a nefarious puzzle involving a wizard in a painting, I found myself face to face with a large, lego-shaped troll. Anyone who has seen the movie or read the book knows exactly how the boys deal with this troll and save Hermoine’s life, and the game plays things out no differently. It did force me to levitate a few more things than just the troll’s club to smash over its head, but that’s the nature of video game boss fights. Once I’d defeated the troll and watched a humorous cut scene of Professor Snape scowling suspiciously at Professor Quirrel (foreshadowing!), the demo ended.
I can not say how well this game will go over with non-Harry Potter fans. Anyone disdainful of the series will probably be double-disdainful of it in Lego form. For fans, this game is nothing short of delightful. It’s light-hearted, manages to tell a story without ever uttering a word, and brings to the screen plenty of familiar Hogwart’s haunts as well as some new places for eager hands to explore. I think with the fever building on the way to the next film, which happens later this year, now is the perfect time to pick up a slightly odd rendition of those first four years and lavish oneself down memory lane. I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on a copy, even if I’ll feel downright silly play as a Lego version of Hagrid. Look for a Spawn Kill review when it hits store shelves later this month. Check out the video below for the year 4 trailer shown off at E3.
Tags: e3 2010, harry potter, hermoine, lego harry potter years 1-4, wb
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